EPA Seeks Better Data On Drilling Pollutants

By

Tennille Tracy

Feb. 22, 2013 4:47 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON—The Environmental Protection Agency was caught off guard by the rise in oil and natural gas drilling in recent years and has limited information about the amount of pollutants entering the air, the agency's internal inspectors say.

The EPA's inspector general said in a report this week that the dearth of air emissions data is leading to assumptions about pollution that are "of questionable quality." States rely on...